BishopAccountability.org
 
 

We Went to a Presbyterian Minister for Counseling. He Sexually Abused US during an ‘exorcism,’ Lawsuit Says.

By Kelly Heyboer
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
June 20, 2019

https://www.nj.com/news/2019/06/we-went-to-a-presbyterian-minister-for-counseling-he-sexually-abused-us-during-an-exorcism-lawsuit-says.html

Four parishioners say they went separately to the Rev. Dr. William Weaver at Linden Presbyterian Church for counseling over the years to ask the veteran minister for help for various problems, including marriage difficulties and depression.

Weaver listened to their troubles in his office and eventually suggested the same solution to all of them -- an “exorcism” ritual he said was taught to him by Native Americans, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this week.

The elaborate exorcism, which involved the minister waving feathers and placing gem stones and metal strips on their bodies, led to sexual abuse, according to the three men and one woman who jointly filed the lawsuit.

“The Rev. Dr. William Weaver, who spent nearly 40 years as the pastor of Linden Presbyterian Church, allegedly performed masturbation and oral sex on the male plaintiffs as part of a ritual he said would free them from evil spirits,” the Fuggi law firm, which is representing all of the parishioners in the lawsuit, said in a statement.

“For the female plaintiff, Weaver ‘freed her evil spirits’ by sucking metal out from her navel,” the law firm’s statement said.

The four parishioners -- Jared Staunton, Alan Meeker Jr., William Weist and a woman identified in the lawsuit only by initials -- filed their lawsuit Tuesday in Middlesex County Superior Court. In addition to Weaver, they are suing the Linden Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) and the Presbytery of Elizabeth, the organization that oversees the local parish.

Staunton, Meeker and Weist went public with the minister’s alleged abuse in a report published by MyCentralJersey.com earlier this month.

The head of the Presbytery of Elizabeth referred all questions about the lawsuit to the organization’s attorney, who did not immediately respond to a request to comment. Weaver, who gave up his ordination and his membership in the Presbyterian Church earlier this year, could not be reached for comment at his house in Lakewood.

The three men said they reported the alleged sexual assault by Weaver to the Presbyterian Church, police and the state attorney general’s clergy abuse hotline, but Weaver has not been charged with any crimes.

Weaver, 69, stepped down in January on the eve of an internal church trial after he was accused of sexual misconduct.

All four of the alleged victims had similar accounts of their counseling sessions with the minister, according to the lawsuit. In each case, Weaver would cite a passage from the Bible calling on the faithful to use the “full armor of God” to fight the Devil.

Then, he would allegedly ask them to undress and lay flat while he waved feathers over their bodies and placed gem stones, metal strips and an angel coin on their bodies, the lawsuit said. After performing oral sex or placing his mouth on their bodies, he would show them small metal balls or other pieces of metal he said were evil spirits he sucked from them during the ritual.

The 105-page lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of damages from Weaver and the Presbyterian Church, citing sexual abuse, psychological and emotional distress and gross negligence by church officials.

Weaver is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary who previously served as chaplain of the Union County Police Department and as a minister in the hospice division of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

 

 

 

 

 




.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.